


Countdown.

by Werepirechick



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: ALL OF IT, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Body Dysphoria, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Falling In Love, Friendship/Love, Growing Up, Hurt/Comfort, ITS MY FAVORITE, Idiots in Love, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, JUST, Love Triangles, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Requited Love, Self Confidence Issues, Slow Burn, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Teen Romance, Threesome - F/M/M, True Love, a lot of dorky kids figuring out how love works, as usual, but they're there anyways, just all the love, kind of?, love adding that tag, that's all donnie here, the other tagged ships are mostly background stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 03:43:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11140377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Werepirechick/pseuds/Werepirechick
Summary: Donnie grew up wondering if his partners would love him. April grew up pondering just who her partners could be. Casey grew up knowing they’d make things work no matter what.They finish growing up together, and somehow, three sets of dual clocks find each other, and come together as fate intended.





	Countdown.

**Author's Note:**

> i spent two days writing this in a whirlwind because an anon of tumblr requested soulmate AU for capritello and i HAD TO.

 

 

Every person- every _person-_ is born with a countdown on their wrist. Every _person._ Not animals, just people.

So when Yoshi accidentally becomes the father of four freshly mutated turtles, he’s surprised to find that they have those countdowns where they didn’t before. Tiny little watches printed on their green scales, ones that will grow in size and coloration as they age; all the little hands ticking down merrily on the bodies of four children who’ve just become actual people, instead of just animals.

That fact is part of why Yoshi takes them into his arms- quietly mourning that his own watch has long since stopped ticking, cracked through the surface of it, and now hiding beneath his new fur- and chooses to raise them as the people fate has decided they in fact are.

Except, he notices at a later time, when they’re not on the run and he’s not newly trying to figure out how to be a father of four rambunctious boys- that the child he named Donatello is a bit… odd. Odder than just being a turtle.

He has a clock on his right wrist, as is the most typical spot to have one, but also… on his left wrist.

Yoshi stares at this revelation about his son, unsure of what exactly he’s supposed to do about it- he’s never heard of such a thing occurring, is it a side effect of once not being a thinking being?- but ultimately decides there isn’t anything he can actually do about it. His son is his son, whether he’s a turtle with two soulmate clocks or not.

He puts it aside, and doesn’t really question it afterwards.

Donnie grows up with two clocks on his wrists, and questions everything about that for years to come. He’s not human, and was originally an animal- so who could those two people be? It makes him fret, because what if they hate him for what he is, or worse, what if they’re not even capable of thoughts? What if they’re not human at all, and he’s destined to find two _animals_ as his soulmates?

His brothers all have single clocks, but Donnie has two, and while they all sometimes worry of just who they’re fated to meet, Donnie feels his worries are doubled.

—

April O’Neil is born in a farmhouse, surrounded by what little family she’s got. Her mother and father hold her between them, and curl around her in exhausted relief. In their eyes, she’s a perfectly healthy baby, and the doctor confirms this when they call him over in the morning.

Except, April’s wrists have twin clocks on each, and her parents are terrified of what that could mean. Terrified of the heritage they know their daughter has, and how it’s already begun affecting her. April may lack any obviously alien features, but the knowledge that she isn’t entirely human weighs on them both.

But, they love her too fiercely- futilely, for they know that one day the Kraang will come for her- to ever consider ostracizing the greatest expression of their love together. Her mother kisses them each day, and prays to all the powers there are that her baby girl gets to grow up and meet these people; that they’ll protect her from the forces that want her for their own gain.

When April’s father is forced to leave his wife- his soulmate, his other half, the only person he’ll ever love- it’s like tearing a part of himself off, and he carries April away in his arms as his clock shatters across its surface.

April’s wrists are covered from then on, now that they live in the city and not an isolated farmhouse, and her father warns her that she should never show others her twin clocks. April grows up confused by her clocks, and wonders on and off of just who those two people she’s destined to meet could be.

She only finds vague stories on the internet of other twin clocks, or erotic fantasies that make her lips purse and force her to clear her browser history. Her father never speaks a word of his worries about her clocks, but she can feel them anyway. She worries too, but is mostly curious.

Who would those two people turn out to be? Were they also fated to meet one another, like she was fated to meet them? Or were they not, and it was just her meant for them but not them meant for each other. She daydreams vaguely about it as she gets older, and can never put concrete faces to either of her soulmates. She just hopes they can make things work, as complicated as the whole idea seems.

—

Casey Jones is born in a hospital, and while his bizarre dual clocks are documented, no media story ever comes of it. Kind nurses and doctors keeping things confidential, for the sake of the family as they go back to their small apartment.

Casey never really decides what he thinks of his clocks. They’re just there, and that’s that. Mostly, he thinks of himself as something special; after all, no way a single person could ever handle the whole Casey Jones experience all on their own.

His father and mother pat his head, and tell him that whoever his two soulmates are, they’ll probably think he’s as amazing as he himself thinks. Behind his back, they trade fondly exasperated glances, and know that fate will work things out for him. Their own partnering happened, and millions of other ones have over the eons; such as how fate wills it for each couple. One boy with two clocks might be a bit strange, but Casey is Casey, and he tends to make things work out for himself one way or another.

Casey grows up with armbands around his wrists- like most other kids have, since society is strange with customs like that- and a general certainty that whenever he meets his soulmates, they’ll probably all get along great.

The more the merrier, right? Love happens as it’s meant to, no ifs ands or buts. That’s how Casey treats the whole thing, and even after his mother passes, and his father’s clock shatters across its surface, he keeps the confidence that his own soulmate meeting will work out fine. Fate is fate, and while Casey tends to say he makes his own, he’s fine with the idea of getting not one but _two_ people to join him on his quest to be the most metal person alive.

He grows up excited for the day he’ll meet his soulmates, and expecting the whole thing to go off without a hitch.

—

Clocks stop the first time you come into physical contact with your partner.

Donnie catches April, and exactly that happens.

Their wrist clocks- which had been ticking down down down for days, and they’d been antsy about the fateful meeting, worried and wondering- chime loudly as Donnie holds April in his arms, staring at her. Stunned.

April finally opens her eyes, having closed them tight and only startled open both by not hitting the pavement and her clock’s chiming - sees Donnie- and promptly shrieks.

Donnie shrieks right back, drops her, and April faints dead away before she can really acknowledge her clock. Donnie is too distracted by not getting killed, and doesn’t have enough brain space to notice a clock on his wrist is done counting down.

And then April is gone, swept away in a van with men who all wear the same face, and Donnie has a moment to tear off his wrist wrappings to stare at it.

He stares at it. And stares at it. And tries to wrap his head around what’s just happened.

“…dude,” Mikey says, grimacing along with all their brothers as they stare at Donnie’s wrist. “You just met your _soulmate.”_

“And then lost her right afterwards,” Raph adds unhelpfully.

“…wow,” Leo says, inching away from Donnie. “Awk _ward.”_

Donnie’s mouth gapes, and he can’t find any sound besides a wheezy whisper of, “Oh my god she was my soulmate.”

“Yep,” Raph says, patting Donnie’s shell comfortingly (not). “And she got kidnapped literally right after. Good job with the first impressions; the screaming really sealed the deal.”

“Oh my god SHE WAS MY _SOULMATE,”_ Donnie screeches. He grabs the closest sibling near him- Leo- and drags his brother close to his face to further shriek, “ _And she literally just got kidnapped WE HAVE TO GO GET HER RIGHT NOW HOLY FUCK!!”_

“Oh boy,” Mikey says under his breath, and that sums up the general mood Donnie’s brothers are all sharing.

April wakes up, far across town and in a prison that glows in unearthly ways. She’s more preoccupied with checking if he father is alright- he is, if shaken- and seeing if they can get out, than she is with remembering that one of her clocks stopped.

And then she does remember, when she’s banging on the window of their cell and glances at her wrists and realizes _oh my god one of her clocks stopped._

She hurriedly removes her armbands, and finds her right wrist’s clock has stopped moving. Now, it’s got a pleasantly glowy tint to the surface of it, which will fade as she and her new partner spend more time together.

April stares at it. And stares at it. And realizes it stopped when that _thing_ had caught her.

April sits down hard, trapped in a literal alien environment, and completely unsure of what fate has just brought into her life.

—

The fact that the girl’s first reaction to him was to scream in fear stings in places Donnie always knew it would. But, she’s his soulmate, and he’s going to get her back whether or not she’s afraid of him.

They break April out of the compound, and when it comes down to the moment- where April is being carried off in a helicopter and he’s about to lose her, and Donnie yells at her to _trust him_ and holds his hands out- she does, and she jumps, and he catches her a second time.

April jumps because she’s desperate, and because some distant part of her says _yes, I can trust him._ Shell and all.

She loses her father, and that puts a damper on things. She can’t think around that fact- or around all the earth shaking things she’s learning about the world tonight, like aliens and mutants- and just doesn’t have the space to approach the elephant in the room. She can’t see Donnie’s wrist anyways, wrapped in bandages like it is, so she decides to address everything later, when her mind feels less like a smoothie.

Donnie can’t see her wrists when they escort April home, to her aunt’s place, and he doesn’t know how to open his mouth and ask to see if her clock stopped, too. Or, if she has _two_ clocks, like him. _Or…_ if she actually _wants_ him as a soulmate. Donnie has never been more aware of his inhumanity than he is in that moment, saying goodnight to a normal girl and promising they’ll be in contact again soon.

A part of Donnie is elated that he’s not fated to an animal; a larger part is painfully worried April will reject him completely. He keeps his wrist covered, and vows to confront the situation… later.

April is distantly and completely shocked that one of her fated partners is a mutant turtle. She has no idea how to absorb that knowledge, let alone figure out what to do with it, so she decides she’ll confront the situation… later.

Donnie’s brothers all exchange glances behind his back, and shrug. So one of them met their soulmate; the rest of them have months, years, even, before theirs. None of them are really sure how to help their brother through this, and even less sure how they’re supposed to interact with April about it.

They ask if Donnie is going to talk to their father.

Donnie says he’s not sure.

April’s aunt sees her stopped clock as April goes to brush her teeth, and asks with wide eyes just who she’s met on this traumatic night.

April says she’s not sure.

Both of their separate family members are unsure how to help April and Donnie, and decide to give them space to deal with the issue while they attend to others. (A missing father and an orphaned daughter; aliens are real and dad I swear we actually punched some in the face.)

—

Eventually, because they can’t avoid it forever, Donnie and April very, very, _very_ awkwardly bring up the topic of their clocks. At the same time. Standing alone in Donnie’s lab, finally done dancing around a subject they know that everyone has been watching them avoid.

They stare at one another for a long moment, and then, moving with the same carefulness, they unwrap the covers over their wrists.

They only remove one, the one with the clock that chimed the night they met. Privately they’re still deeply afraid of showing their second clock, for personal reasons and for ones unknowingly mutual.

April stares at the stark way Donnie’s clock stands out against his large, green scaled wrist; Donnie in turn, stares at the stark way April’s clock stands out against her small, pale skinned wrist.

“So…” He says quietly. He clears his throat awkwardly. “I guess. I guess we’re soulmates?” His voice cracking on the last words; utterly terrified that just because April is sort of their friend, she’ll turn him away for who and what he is.

April looks up from comparing their wrists, and Donnie is distantly relieved that she looks as uncertain as he feels. “I guess so,” She replies in a soft voice. She smiles tightly. “I can’t say I ever expected- well, someone like… you, Donnie.”

Internally, Donnie flinches, because that’s understandable. “I know,” _I’m sorry,_ he doesn’t say. He covers his wrist, rubbing it as he tries to keep a calm head. “Um. Guess the same could be said to you? I never really knew what to expect from my s-soulmate. Since I’m. You know. Me.”

April blinks, finally catching how tense Donnie is, and reaches out for his hands. “Well, that would be something I’d be unsure of too, if I were you,” April says kindly, taking Donnie’s hands in hers as he watches with unsure eyes. She meets them, and steadies herself as they link themselves together. “But I guess fate works things out, one way or another.”

Donnie tries not to stare at how their hands look so strangely right together, and attempts to hold all his anxious thoughts at bay. “I’ve been told that, yes. And- and do you think this is… fate? Us?”

He barely holds back following questions. _Is this okay? Are you okay with me being me? Do you not want me? Do you want this at all?_

“You saved my life,” April says. She squeezes Donnie’s large hands as she does. “And you turned out to be a really great guy. I think that’s proof enough.”

“So… are you…? Are we…?” Donnie doesn’t want to say it out loud, not when he’s still so unsure of the answer. He struggles for another beat, and manages a hopeful, “Can we try?”

“I think we can,” April says softly, staring up at someone she never expected to have in her life, and is grateful to have met regardless. Then, she remembers her other wrist, and her mood sours. She bites her lip, and glances away from Donnie. “But there’s… there’s something you should know, before we go forwards with this.”

“…there’s something you should know, too, about me,” Donnie says, shoulders slumping slightly. He feels dread returning, because even if April will accept their attempt to try something between them, could she accept Donnie having another partner, somewhere in the future? And what if that partner was against it as well, when they finally met them? And that is assuming the person would even want Donnie as a soulmate. He’s already been so lucky, he’s not sure if it’ll hold.

April releases Donnie’s hands, clutching her still covered wrist. She’s worried now that Donnie will be upset by her other clock; their situation is so precarious as is, new and unfamiliar, and what if her other future partner can’t accept Donnie or the dual relationship? She’s only known him for a short while, but she can already tell that Donnie isn’t someone she ever wants to lose. Even at the cost of her other soulmate.

April pulls off her armband the same time Donnie removes his second set of wrapping.

“April, I’m sorry, but I’ve got-”

“Donnie, I’m sorry, but I have-”

They stop, and stare at one another.

“…another soulmate,” They whisper together, staring at each other’s wrist. They blink in confusion at one another, not quite convinced what’s happening is happening.

Donnie purses his lips, and April thins hers.

Well, this makes things even more complicated.

—

“So, what, we have- individual other soulmates? A joint other soulmate? Is this a fourway or a threeway, my god.”

“I have no idea, Donnie. I have no ideas about anything anymore. I don’t think it even really matters- four or three or- fuck, what if it’s two other people, who also have another person besides us- how many damn clocks could this go?”

“I don’t know and I think I feel a little dizzy.”

“I can’t believe having a mutual other soulmate is suddenly the _easy_ outcome here.”

“I know. This is like something out of Leo’s bad fanfic bookmarks.”

“Leo’s- Leo’s _what?”_

“I am the only person in this house with a computer, and Leo routinely forgets how to clear the history of it after he uses it.”

“That’s. Well.”

“I feel slightly violated when he reads them.”

“Eugh, same feeling here.”

“Let’s not talk about that anymore. Please.”

“You’re the one who brought it up.”

“I know. I regret it deeply.”

“Again, same feeling. Gross.”

“So… um, anyways, can we… can we try the kissing thing again?”

“…you know, that sounds like a better topic of conversation, so yeah. Let’s do that.”

“Okay, uh, cool, great, how do I angle- oh- _mmph-”_

“Shh. No more talking.”

“I’m. I am on board with that plan.”

—

They figure out a relationship after that, one that works for them and is as unconventional as their lives require it to be. Their second clocks keep ticking down- their individual destined meetings at different times, furthering the question of just who the other(s?) to their relationship will be. But, for the most part, their lives are too hectic to ponder deeply on who the person(s) will be.

Particularly when Mikey’s clock rings loud and clear in the middle of a fight, and is echoed by a matching one-

-which happens to be on the wrist of a massive mutant crocodile, hell-bent on murdering everything in his path.

“Oh boy,” Donnie says, exchanging glances with his older brothers as Mikey fusses over the other mutant’s unconscious body. Leo and Raph give him equally confused and slightly panicky looks, and between the three of them they help Mikey drag his gigantic soulmate back to the lair. Which only happens because Mikey turns a sternly stubborn look on them all, and demands they do so.

Everything from there is a total mess- Donnie nearly dies too many times, and has his face grabbed repeatedly- and the night eventually boils down to Mikey proclaiming that the crocodile is in fact his soulmate and also called Leatherhead now.

And Donnie thought _his_ soulmate situation was strange.

At least Leatherhead apologises for grabbing Donnie’s face so much. He’s possibly one of the only people to have ever apologized for assaulting his person, and he also builds excellent traps and Donnie wants tips for that, so he ends up forgiving the newest addition to their family.

Mikey and Leatherhead spend much of their spare time glued together after that, and Donnie asks his older brothers if he and April were as grossly PDA as that, what with Mikey and Leatherhead curling around each other in plain sight on the couch every chance they get.

“Oh yeah,” Raph confirms. “Except worse, because there was all this _pining_ before that.”

“It was actually quite sickening,” Leo adds with a solemn nod. Donnie gives him a flat look, says _“browser history,”_ and watches Leo go satisfyingly pale. Raph has a similar paleness, because once again, Donnie is the only one in the house with a laptop, and he knows more about his brothers’ search history than he ever wanted to.

Nothing eventful having to do with their clocks happens for a while, post addition of Leatherhead to things. There’s a brief interlude where Leo unsubtly sulks around that Karai isn’t his destined soulmate, but they all ignore his whining or remind him that his clock has always said that his soulmate is years further into the future. (Later, they are all very, very, very, _very_ glad Karai was not Leo’s soulmate, because while their lives are strange and complicated, that is one bucket of incestuous worms none of them ever want to tip over or even acknowledge ever again. And besides, Shinigami probably would’ve murdered them all if they tried.)

Then, after experiencing near death and near heaven with her more times than he can count- April leaves them.

And Donnie’s heart breaks in half.

—

April breaks her own heart, storming away from her best friends and her partner, who _betrayed her,_ and took her father a second time from her.

She doesn’t have a clear plan to anything- nothing besides needing to be _away_ from them all- and just tries to be an ordinary girl for a while. Like one that helps fellow classmates pass their grade.

Which goes along fine, pleasantly distracting from all her troubling thoughts and drawing her attention from everything. Including the steadily ticking clock on her wrist and its silent twin.

Or, it goes along fine and distracting, until Casey claps April on the back after a late night study session, and two sets of chiming alarms go off. They’re the only two people on the street, so there’s not even a need to check their wrists if it’s their alarms that have just gone off.

“Oh… _ooohhhh-!”_ Casey exclaims, gaping at April. “Oh my god! It’s you!”

April is as stunned as he is, and can barely react beyond a stuttered affirmation, before Casey sweeps her into a hug. He’s laughing loud and freely, and looks utterly elated that April’s his soulmate. The sheer openness he has with everything, his emotions, his thoughts, his dreams, draws April out of her shock and makes laughter bubble up in her chest.

Casey hears that laughter, and it makes something warm appear in his chest. He’d known he kind of liked April in a vague sense, like most casual crushes he’s had over the years, but now he _knows_ he likes her. _Likes her_ likes her. His study partner was one of his destined partners; who’d have thought?

He twirls her around, and presses a messy kiss to her cheek. It makes April giggle, and Casey feels like he wants her to make that sound a hundred times more right then.

“So, just to clarify,” He says with a grin, still holding April off the ground and almost too-light to feel anything beyond her body on his. “You’re my soulmate, and I’m yours, and we’re gonna do the dating thing now, right?”

April’s gone through nothing but harshly painful things lately, and the spot of kind-of normalcy Casey’s become in her life is one she’s started cherishing. Now, he’s looking at her like she’s got everything he’s ever wanted, and she finds his goofy smile so much more endearing for it.

“I think so!” She laughs, feeling free of burden for the first time in weeks. Casey replies with a vague, _“cool,”_ and moves to press another kiss to her. This time April sees it coming, and meets him halfway for their first proper kiss. She’s a little tired of thinking and worrying about everything; she chooses to kiss Casey and feel nothing but glowing happiness at least for now.

“Oh yeah, by the way,” Casey mumbles after a few repetitions of those affections. “I kind of have a second soul clock, hope that’s not gonna be an issue here.”

That brings all of April’s other thoughts rushing back, and she leans away to give him a wide eyed look. “What? Seriously?”

“Uh, yep. Pretty sure. See?”

April stares at the uncovered wrist of Casey’s left arm, and how the clock on it is still ticking along. She blows out a harsh breath, and goes to bare her own wrists. “Well, I think I’m alright with that, so long as you’re alright with… this.”

Casey stares at April’s two wrists, both clocks stopped at different dates and time. He looks her in the eyes, and says very clearly, “Well, that makes everything a little more complicated.”

“You’re telling me,” April says tiredly.

As it happens, very unfortunately, Donnie has been watching the whole exchange on a rooftop he stopped on after patrol.

He watches his soulmate kiss another man- a real man, a _hu_ man- who is assumable _her_ second soulmate, and feels hurt and fear curdle in his stomach. If Casey is her other destined partner, and she obviously likes him already, then where does that leave Donnie?

He wants to leap down from the roof, confirm that they’re still just taking a break from each other, that April isn’t going to leave him for Casey, see if Casey is the other half of him, too-

-but Donnie knows he’s still got time on his clock, almost weeks until it’s supposed to hit zero. And, he knows that he can’t go down there. The streetlamp April and Casey stand beneath is a spotlight he can’t enter safely, and that fact makes his shoulder slump in defeat.

He leaves without saying a word to either human on the street below, and waits in his home underground to see what April’s decision is going to be; about them, about Casey, about everything.

—

April comes back to Donnie, and they spend hours apologizing to one another through the night. They’re not meant to be apart, however deep the wound they put in their relationship was. Soulmates- when the other is alive and well, and you’re the sorts who need to be regularly close to one another- need to remain together. Being apart from each other felt _wrong,_ and it’s hurt them both.

There are kisses and apologies and a long, long talk in Donnie’s bedroom about what the future holds. April tells Donnie about Casey, and Donnie says he knows, he saw them on accident the night their clocks stopped, and that he’s sorry for spying.

April admonishes him for stalking her- (“I was just checking up on you, I swear!” “I have five knives and a bladed fan on my person at all times, Donnie. I was _fine._ ”)- but forgives him after a few minutes of more kisses. She missed him fiercely, and that alone is enough to make her forgive him; even more so for the genuine sorry-ness he has for the intrusion.

“…I saw you show your wrist, before I left,” Donnie adds a little while later. “I didn’t. I didn’t stay to see how he reacted.”

April sighs, and nestles her head a little closed to Donnie’s neck. “He said he was fine by it, so long as I was fine… for him having the same situation.”

Donnie’s brain actually stops for a moment. Confused.

“Um. What??”

“I had the same reaction.”

“Oh my god. I can’t believe it.”

“Mine are both stopped, but his other one is still ticking,” April taps Donnie’s left wrist, where his watch counts down still. “Like yours, so there’s… is hope the right word for this?”

“I don’t know,” Donnie says, looking at his still running clock. “God I hope the infinite second soulmate theory isn’t real. April, I don’t think I could handle this chain going any further.”

“Truth be told, I’m not sure I could either.”

“So what do we do? Are we- am I supposed to meet him? Should we arrange it right when my clock’s supposed to stop?” Donnie pauses, old fears and worries rising again. “And even if he’s not my other soulmate, he’s still yours and I’m- I’m yours too, but not- human. April, what if he hates me?”

“He won’t hate you,” April says firmly, putting a protective and leanly muscled arm across Donnie’s plastron. “And if he does, I’ll smack that empty head of his until he doesn’t. We’ll make this work, Donnie. I don’t want to lose either of you.”

“…do you already care about him that much?” Donnie asks softly, both warmed by April’s protective conviction and a tinge hurt by her attachment to Casey only weeks after meeting him.

“Yeah, I think I do,” April replies, just as soft. “That’s just how this soulmate thing works; you can’t fight it.”

Donnie nods, understanding that this isn’t something they can change, and something he would never ask her to. “Okay. Okay then, we’ll make this work. I promise.”

They decide not to plan any sort of meeting between Donnie and Casey until their clocks stop, and they get confirmation of things straight from fate itself. If they’re each other’s soulmates, destiny will find a way to bring them together. Trying to force it wouldn’t work.

Donnie is watching his wrist’s clock tick down, anxiously worried that he’s home and it’s _nearly there-_ when a noise startles him and his brothers off the couch, and they turn to find an intruder in their home.

The masked psycho bellows a challenge at them as they charge one another, and the second Donnie’s fist makes contact with the man’s mask-

-two sets of chiming alarms go off, and everyone freezes.

“Oh no way,” Donnie whispers, staring at the mad man who broke into his home and tried to kill them all.

“Oh _fuck me,”_ Says that mad man, staring at Donnie with equal horror.

“God _dammnit,_ Donnie,” Raph says, and the fight resumes as they try to restrain this person who is apparently _Donnie’s soulmate._

They get the mask off- and Donnie’s not sure what he expects, but the Halloween terror makeup isn’t it. The crazy teen bares his gap-toothed sneer at them, and snarls in Raph and Leo’s hold. Donnie is slowly putting the pieces together, stunned and shocked and failing to take in the situation fast enough, when April emerges from the dojo to yell, _“Casey?!”_

“You _know_ this guy?” Raph asks, and Donnie makes a weak sound in his throat as Casey- _Casey-_ shakes off his brothers.

“April, you _know_ these guys?” Casey spits with the same amount of disgust Raph did. And he turns immediately to Donnie right after, pointing an accusing finger at Donnie. “And _you-_ the fuck did you do to my soul clock?!”

April’s eyes go wide, same as Donnie’s father’s, and Leo whispers the ever favored words, _“Oh boy,”_ under his breath as he gets out of range. Raph and Mikey quickly follow him.

“ _Me?!”_ Donnie accuses right back. “You’re- you’re the one who made _mine_ go off! You’re the psycho who _broke into my house!”_

“ _House?! This is the fucking sewers!”_

_“Abandoned subway tunnels, thank you very much!”_

_“Fuck you! What’d you do to my clock?!”_

_“I don’t know, WHAT DID YOU DO TO MINE?!”_

_“I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING, YOU’RE THE ONE WHO DID SOMETHING TO MINE!_ _”_

“Oh my god,” April says despairingly, putting her head in her hands and wondering what powers decided her life needed to be this difficult. Master Splinter pats her shoulders comfortingly, and tries to find a tidbit of ninja wisdom to impart to his third son’s struggles. He finds none, and settles to for separating Donatello and Casey before they can do more than frantically shout at one another in their fear and shock.

—

“So, he’s a mutant turtle,” Casey says in a reasonable voice, once the metal robo-ninja apocalypse is over and he’s sitting in a kitchen full of appliances older than he is.

Said mutant turtle and his- their??- soulmate exchange glances.

“Yeah, that’s me,” The mutant says. “Formally introducing myself, I’m Donatello. Yes I’m a turtle, yes I’m a ninja, yes I’m April’s other soulmate. And apparently yours as well.”

“I know this is a lot to take in, Casey,” April says gently, reaching to Donatello’s hand and grasping it in hers. “But Donnie’s a good guy, and I’m hoping you’ll give… _us_ , a chance.”

“He punched me in the face,” Casey deadpans.

“You broke into my home,” Donnie deadpans right back.

“ _Boys,”_ April says in a warning tone. They had their screamfest and fighting earlier, now is time for talking like sensible people. Donnie ducks his head, and mumbles, “Sorry, April,” and Casey mumbles the same. April shakes her head; it’s barely past ten thirty and she’s already worn out from tonight’s events. “So how do we do this? Are you two going to be able to get along at all?”

Donnie and Casey glance at each other, and share a resigned sort of look.

“I… _guess_ I can give this a shot,” Casey says reluctantly. This wasn’t at all what he’d been expecting his partnering to end up as. “Although honestly, I’m not entirely on board with where this is going.”

“Same to you, Jones,” Donnie says coolly, burying the tinges of hurt he feels from Casey’s tone. This could go very bad very fast if he- they- weren’t careful, but Casey also aggravates him deeply, so Donnie finds courtesy a bit hard to muster.

April gives Donnie’s hand a squeeze, and sighs to herself. However this is going to go, it won’t be easy. Not with her two boys already at odds with one another.

But then again, when has anything in her life ever been _easy?_

—

There’s hardly any time for Donnie and Casey to get to know one another before the whole world comes crashing down around them.

There’s so much loss packed into one horrible day, and everything moves too fast to even take in- but somehow, Donnie finds a moment while April is bandaging his arm to say what’s been growing in him the past months.

“So, um, since it’s kind of the end of the world all over again… I just wanted to say how I feel about you,” Donnie says softly, hoping her father won’t hear the confession and his brother will give them space.

April pauses her tending to Donnie’s quick first-aid, and looks up at him, already feeling the importance of what Donnie is trying to say.

“I love you,” Donnie says, and it’s the first time he’s admitted it out loud. He fights the instinctive worry that it won’t be returned, because they’ve been through so much together; he knows that even if April doesn’t say it back, they’ll still survive this. “And even if we die today, I want you to know you’re the most amazing soulmate I could’ve gotten. I don’t regret anything, and I think I don’t ever want us to be apart, even as… difficult, that could turn out to be.”

April stares up at him, softly stunned, and then smiles slowly as her heart swells.

“I love you, too,” She says quietly, and for a moment, there’s none of the disasters outside and there’s only them. “And I think I’d like us to be together for good, too. _And,_ we will be, because none of us are dying here today. I won’t let that happen.”

For that brief pause in their complicated lives, there’s just the two of them, and the miracle they’ve come to consider their relationship. Two clocks each, and yet, they’re still making things work. Against all the odds- despite April’s inhumanity, and Donnie’s even more so- they fell in love, and though they’re young, they know it’s real and they never want to lose it.

Before the rest of their group meets up, before Casey arrives and brings with him the part of their relationship that’s still budding, before Leo flies through the window more dead than alive- they take a moment more to bring their foreheads close, and promise each other they’ll get through this, together.

They link hands as the world tries to end around them, and kiss quick and fluttery. No time for lingering, they’ve got a city to save.

—

It’s somewhere after that, when the world slows to a standstill and they run out of things to hit. When Casey is stuck in a barn with someone he’s fated to love and still not sure how he feels about that. It’s somewhere during that time, that they lay down the barbs they’ve been exchanging over and over since they met, and just… talk.

April takes long shifts at the diner in town, and sleeps whenever she isn’t working. Sometimes it’s with one of her boys, but more often it’s alone. Her powers are shifting, growing again; other minds are becoming exhausting to be around constantly, and her soulmates understand she needs space to herself after a long day of overstimulation.

So that leaves the two of them, unfamiliar with one another and trying to broach that barrier, if only for April.

It’s easier than either of them expected, once they let go of their suspicion.

Donnie finds that Casey isn’t half obnoxious as he likes to portray, and in Casey’s opinion neither is Donnie. When Casey comes back from farmhand jobs, he’s often too tired to put up his usual bravado; it gives Donnie glimpses of the teen underneath that, and he slowly begins to find both sides of Casey endearing. Alternatively, Donnie will sometimes burn himself out by not sleeping for days, and it leaves him too tired to filter his outward emotions and conversations. Casey finds himself kind of liking the mutant when he’s not spewing words no one but dictionaries know, and starts to empathize with what Donnie’s had to deal with the past few years.

Sometimes it’s easier to not talk at all, and that still leaves plenty to do.

There are farm repairs and car parts to tinker with. Casey adopts the truck as his personal obsession, in place of being able to find an enemy he can actually fight. Donnie gets drawn mostly against his will into the project, and is convinced to put down his mutagen experiments from time to time. Casey’s not quite the numerals and logic sort of thinker like Donnie, but Casey’s hands-on and kinesthetic type method makes sense once they really get into things.

April sometimes stops by, leaning on the barn doorframe and smiling fondly to herself as her boys figure themselves out. The best moments, in her opinion, are the ones where they’re so caught up in debating or building or just laughing together, and don’t even notice she’s there.

She’s not there when her boys kiss for the first time, but she does hear about it later from both of them.

It happens same way most things do for them- kind of on accident, a little bit messy, and an action taken in the heat of the moment. They’re elbow deep into the old truck’s still not quite functioning engine, when they slowly lose track of what they were saying, and close the last bit of distance between them both.

Donnie kisses Casey, and Casey kisses Donnie, and neither of them thinks it’s anything like kissing April, but are fine with that. This is something new, something different- something for just them.

They sort of stare at one another when they break apart, not entirely sure where the kiss had come from or if the other wanted it to happen.

“Uh…” Casey says, trying to find something to say. “So- I guess that happened?”

Donnie blinks owlishly, seeming just as caught by surprise as Casey feels. He gives an awkward half smile. “Uh, I guess so?”

Casey can’t tell if he’s supposed to move away, or apologize, or what. He decides to go with one of his other impulses, and leans slowly back in.

Donnie has the chance to refuse, but he doesn’t even consider doing so, and leans in as well.

It’s again messy, again completely new, but it’s sort of wonderful for those things, and they embrace it.

—

Fate finds a way, one way or another.

Fate finds them sharing a bed for the first time, the night after Casey and Donnie broach the final barrier between the two of them.

April feels stable enough to have people close to her once again, and even if she didn’t, she would have done this anyways. The three of them are still new, still learning each other, but this is real, and it very likely could be love.

She’s exhausted as she falls asleep, like she always feels these days, but she’s warm and cared for between the two most important people she has in her life. They all fit together on the queen sized bed with minimal squishing, and somehow find it to be one of the best sleeps they’ve had in months.

Donnie and Casey exchange brief questioning glances- _is this alright? Is this really alright for us?-_ but don’t find any sign of either of them not wanting to be close like this.

It’s the first time they share space so intimately- sleeping as a trio, and not in separate duos- and it’s hardly the last. But, the first is always the first, and often the most special.

It’s an act of trust, deciding to really _try_ being the destined three they’re meant to be. And it’s one that they all know the weight of.

April opens her eyes briefly the next morning, sees and feels the sleep that still holds her boys, and smiles softly as she rejoins them. Her mind doesn’t hurt when it’s just them, her ambient senses finding only affection in each of her soulmates, and she feels safer than she has in months nestled between them.

Casey stirs only once, blearily confused in the dead of night that he’s suddenly missing a portion of the blanket on his legs. He finds it pulled towards Donnie’s side of the bed, and rolls his eyes before tugging it back from the reptile’s hoarding. Before he closes his eyes again, he glances at the two people in his bed. April and Donnie seem so right, sleeping peacefully like that against one another, and he finds that he feels none of the jealousy he originally did for them.

Donnie doesn’t sleep for a long time, watching his partners drift off before he does. He scarcely can believe this is happening, that they’re really here and that they care for him, despite all the flaws he counts in himself. He worried so much that his twin clocks would lead him to people who could never love him, and yet, he finds those worries swept away, staring at April and Casey’s sleeping faces.

When they finally do drag themselves from the comfort of bed, it’s only because Mikey cruelly comes in and drags the covers off by force. The action elicits groans and curses, and only encourages Casey to hide his face in April’s hair, April to burrow deeper into the sandwich she’s middling, and Donnie to put an arm across the whole pile to hold the humans’ heat close to him as long as possible.

“You’re all gross,” Mikey says, shaking his head at his brother and friends. “Me an’ Leatherhead are way less disgusting with PDA. You’re all straight up public nuisances at this point.”

“This is _my bedroom,_ Mike,” April gripes from under her boyfriends. “ _You’re_ the one being a public nuisance right now.”

“And for the record, you and Leatherhead are downright scandalous sometimes,” Donnie adds grumpily, already feeling his pleasant warmth fading.

“Snnrffmrrgmff,” Casey adds incoherently, further mashing his face into both April’s hair and the pillow.

Mikey clicks his tongue at them all, and leaves them to drag themselves back to the land of the living. Taking the blanket with him, the little shit.

“’m gonna kill your brother,” Casey says when they finally sit up; hair a complete snarl and with a shadow along the edges of his jaw.

“I’ll help you,” Donnie says, and leans over to kiss the stubble on Casey’s chin because he can. Casey mumbles something about using the rain barrel and some rope, and gives a kiss in return.

April just groans from the bed where she still lays, and then shrieks as both her soulmates elect to take advantage of her ridden up shirt and shock her to wakefulness with a tickle attack.

They’re both banned from kissing her until after breakfast for the trick, but April lets them sneak in for smooches anyways as they serve themselves dubious pancakes.

—

There are many hard experiences after that, and one of the only things that get them through it is the bond they’ve forged.

War and strife dog them at every turn, and the moments they have together are few. But, they’re still there, and that’s enough to get them through each new tragedy.

They go to space, after losing everything they’ve ever had in one fell swoop, and thought it’s an experience rooted in a catastrophe, it’s also a blessing.

Donnie’s never been able to go _anywhere_ public before. Now, he has the opportunity to see whole worlds that won’t even blink at the sight of him walking down the street. The grief of losing his father still clings to him, but the elation of feeling _normal_ for once nearly eclipses that.

He can go into shops, restaurants, theaters; any and all the places he wants to without worrying of being killed just for being himself. And, for the first time, he can hold the hands of his soulmates in plain view of the world, and have no judgement cast on that fact.

He gets to visit cities filled with people and relationships far stranger than the three of them, gets to talk and kiss and laugh with Casey and April in all those places and not have to feel ashamed of it. Donnie gets to experience having soulmates without feeling guilty that they can’t ever live normal lives with him; because out here, they _are_ normal, and it’s the most amazing feeling ever.

They almost die more times than they can count, lose track of the planets they scour and visit, and fight through grief and regret that will likely never go away. And, April and Casey get to see Donnie light up every single day in a brand new way, and it only cements the feelings they’ve come to have for him.

Donnie and April fell in love years ago, and April and Casey fell for each other fast and hard; Casey and Donnie finish the triangle somewhere in the depths of space, and seal the deal with promises and impulsive touches.

The sleep cycle they do, when April’s powers are too raw feeling to be close to anyone at the moment, it’s just them as they try something they’ve already both tried with April in the past.

April said she never minded, that she thought Donnie was perfectly amazing just as he was- but his fear lingers up till the last moment before he and Casey cross the line. Donnie stops, just before that line, and can’t even bring himself to properly voice his question. If Casey really wants him like this.

“Hey, look at me,” Casey says, turning Donnie’s head back towards him. He cups Donnie’s cheeks, and in the low light of the room he stares his soulmate dead in the eyes. “I don’t care that you’re not human. April told me you were worried I would, and this is me telling you I _don’t._ Okay?”

Donnie feels exposed, and disbelieving that he could be so lucky _twice-_ and asks in a wavering voice, “Really?”

“Of course,” Casey says, drawing close again and putting his nose to Donnie’s. “I love you, don’t I?”

And even though he’s heard Casey say it before, even though April has said it a hundred times more than Casey, Donnie still struggles to fully believe those words that have been given to him.

But he doesn’t need to. He just needs to accept them, and says, _“I love you, too,”_ in return.

Casey grins, roguish and brash, and pushes them back together without a hint of hesitation or reluctance. Donnie gives into the obvious affection this boy- this _man-_ has for him, and finally thinks he could believe that this is real, and that he’s really in love and _being_ loved.

April slinks into their bed some hours later, fresh from meditation to quiet the coiled power inside her mind. She finds her boys tangled together and so obviously in love it makes her heart melt. She then slips around Casey’s back, and snuggles comfortably into the place she’s always had with them. A perfect third piece to their triangle.

Three sets of dual clocks have long since stopped, each pair at a different time, and somehow it works. Fate has always intended them to find each other, and no amount of time travel or world destruction or inhumanity was ever going to stop that.

That’s something they take comfort in- that no matter what, they would have found each other somehow and thus found this _bliss-_ as they curl together under the thick blankets of their shared bed. They’re messy, and sometimes bicker, and are all at least a little traumatised, and they love each other.

The last part is enough to cancel out everything else.

—

Raph also finds his soulmate in space, and ends up falling hard for a woman twice his size and with a weapon longer than his arm.

Y’Gythgba’s people have no true soulmates, but she was hatched with a clock regardless. When she meets Raph, the tiny and fierce warrior from a planet far away, she can’t help but listen to his insisting words that they’re _meant_ for each other.

They’re nearly mauled, nearly frozen into icicles, nearly die of oxygen deprivation- and come together irregardless.

They’re not the types of soulmates that need to spend a lifetime together. One night is enough, talking and kissing and experiencing a once in a lifetime pleasure. It’s enough, and then they part ways to follow their individual paths in life.

“I get it now,” Raph tells Donnie and Mikey later, staring at his stopped clock with something akin to wonder. “Why you two just- _knew._ ”

“Well, I was a little unsure about Casey at first… but yeah, I knew eventually,” Donnie says with a warm and understanding smile.

Mikey just shrugs. He and Leatherhead knew it from the moment they first got to actually talk together, and they’ve never questioned it since. He misses his soulmate fiercely, and can’t wait to return home. “Dunno how you can stand it, Raph. Leaving your lady out here and never seeing her again.”

“Y’Gythgba has her own thing to do,” Raph says with a fond smile he probably doesn’t know he’s got. “If we meet again, we meet again. I think this fate stuff is real with that sort of thing, so I think I’ll just… let it happen if it’s going to.”

Leo quietly sulks at the table with them, staring at his clock continuing to tick onwards. He’s got another year and some before he’s supposed to meet his soulmate, and he’s starting to feel a little left out of things.

(He meets his soulmate later, one whose wrist has always been obscured by white fur and has no knowledge that he’s fated to meet Leo.

Leo gets swept into a romance that’s stilted at first- because how exactly do you convince someone with no concept of soul clocks that you’re meant to be together?- but eventually finds the other half he’s always been searching for.

Usagi is someone who meets him equally on plains Leo’s always been alone on, and draws him into new things he never would have considered. He feels he does the same for the rabbit, and wins his soulmate over through steady devotion.

His siblings snicker and call his a furry without real cruelty, prodding him about his decade long obsession with cartoon characters, and Leo is too smitten to do much more than shut them up about it whenever Usagi is within earshot.)

—

Things don’t go smoothly, further down the road. Casey and April and Donnie face things that nearly break them apart, and come through anyways.

Their bond is corrupted, when April’s mind and powers are high-jacked from her and she becomes an enemy to them all. It’s a night that almost tears them apart in the same way April tears Donnie apart.

Casey screams as it happens, feeling the loss and the sickening crack that goes through the clock on his wrist. It wrenches through him sharp and cold, and drives him to his knees as he loses a part of himself.

April screams as well, trapped in her head and horrified of what she’s just taken from them all. One of her clocks shatters its surface, and it does so in time as Za’naron splits the sky with her powers. Her heart feels like it’s bleeding out, and what little control she has of her body lets her weep for what she’s done.

She gets Donnie back, shredding reality itself to do so- and it’s only because of that miracle that they don’t fall apart.

Casey and April’s clocks mend themselves, but a silvery line is spider-webbed through each one afterwards. Donnie was _gone_ \- for too long, too many minutes- and that scar on the three of them will never vanish.

April clutches Donnie close, sobbing and terrified of herself and for him. He’s shaken and still trying to resync with reality, but Donnie’s already forgiven her as he holds her back. Casey bends, and wraps his lanky arms around them both; trying to hold his partners together as they attempt to patch the cracks split through their souls.

It takes weeks for April to even consider forgiving herself, to think that even for a second she deserves the love that her boys insist on still giving her. But she can’t close herself off from them, not fully, and their steady love draws her back out of her shell. Even when nightmares plague her- and Donnie- and Casey, too- none of them think for even a moment that the three of them should separate.

It takes weeks, but eventually April can meet Donnie and Casey’s eyes again, and not feel like hiding herself in shame. It takes weeks, but they find their rhythm again, and resume the relationship that they’ve built together.

And then master Splinter dies, and Casey and April have to hold together Donnie as he tries not to break under the tragedy’s weight.

—

April loses her second father figure who’d cared for her for years; Casey loses a steady adult influence he’d come to love and will miss for the rest of his life; Donnie loses the only parent he’s ever had, and it nearly kills him.

They cluster close as grief takes the Hamato household, and keep one another steady as the stages pass by.

Its months before they do, months before the grey haze lifts from their lives, but it does happen and they keep moving forwards.

The war is over, all their wars are over, and finally, it’s just them and whatever they chose to do in life.

—

Donnie grew up wondering if his partners would love him. April grew up pondering just who her partners could be. Casey grew up knowing they’d make things work no matter what.

They finish growing up together, and somehow, three sets of dual clocks find each other, and come together as fate intended.

Whether it’s late nights in the garage, grease and oil getting up Donnie and Casey’s arms, or hours spent in the dojo sparring with weapons and grinning at April as she shines like an open flame; whether its sneaky ventures getting Donnie into their apartments, or lounging in the one place they can be in the open, far underground; whether it’s night or day or winter or summer, whether they’re young teenagers or young adults, they make things work.

They make things work.

Three sets of clocks followed the course of fate they were set on, find the love they were always meant have, and swear to never let it go.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> god damn i love writing every single possible way these three could fall in love. glad i could finally write a soulmate AU i always wanted to do for these kids, and i think i did pretty well all things considering.
> 
> leave a kudo and a comment on your way out, thanks. <3


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